Staff Sergeant Thomas Moses, 3/69 Armor, 1st HBCT, 3rd ID, and his daughters Alex, 14, and Sommer, 11, look at the Fort Stewart commissary\'s new line of natural beef, which comes from cattle that are fed a diet of natural grasses and grains and are never given antibiotics or added growth hormones.

<b>FORT STEWART, Ga. </b>-With many Americans working toward living healthier lifestyles, which includes the food they eat, the commissary at Fort Stewart is now offering more organic and natural items, including produce, beef and seafood.

The commissary introduced a line of lean, natural beef, July 15. Natural beef, according to meat manager Paul Grubbs, comes from cattle that are fed a diet of natural grasses and grains and that are never given antibiotics or added growth hormones.

"We're finding more and more customers going the natural and healthy way (of eating)," said commissary manager Steve Young. "We're trying to meet all of the requests of our entire customer base."

To start, the commissary is offering 92-percent lean ground beef, eye round, rib eye and New York Strip. Young said that the commissary will begin carrying organic beef in the coming weeks.
One customer is very excited about the commissary's new offerings.

"Now, you don't have to go to some fancy grocery story in a city; you can come to the commissary and get hormone-free meat," said Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Phillips, 3rd Infantry Division deputy commanding general-rear.

The commissary also started offering a variety of 14-15 fresh, never-frozen seafood items, including tuna, Mahi-Mahi, scallops and trout. Some of the seafood is from the U.S., but Young said that the seafood that comes from other counties is shipped live and then butchered in the U.S.

The senior commander was impressed with the quality of the fresh seafood.

"This is a good looking tuna steak. I can imagine myself cooking it on the grill," Brig. Gen. Phillips said. "When you press down on it, you can see that it's fresh."

"This is a trial period; we went through and picked out our better-selling produce to see how they would sell [organic]," Young said. "We're trying to find out what our customers want by seeing what sells."

Young said the new products, on average, are 25 percent more expensive, but the range is 10-50 percent more.

Young added that the organic produce is selling very well, especially grapes, which have been selling out.

"We're just trying to meet the healthy needs of our customers," Young said.